She's Leaving Home
by rejuvenation
Summary: Oneshot- Hermione moves out of the Burrow into a flat in Diagon Alley, with a little help from Fred.


Hermione Granger was fleeing the nest. Flying the coop. Moving away from home. Actually, not home, exactly. Sort of home, kind of. In short, she was leaving the Burrow, where she had lived since she had graduated Hogwarts after returning to finish her seventh year after Voldemort's defeat.

Hermione had then taken a year to travel Britain and Europe, wanting to relax and learn about other wizarding communities. During this period, Mrs. Weasley had been kind enough (actually had demanded that Hermione take her up on her offer) to let Hermione stay with her and Mr. Weasley.

But, as it always does, the end had come. Hermione had secured a job at the Department of Magical Law Enforcement and had decided that living in the home of her best friend's parents wasn't something that a grown-up working woman did.

So, today, Hermione was moving out. It was a Friday, since Hermione wanted a weekend to settle in at her new apartment in Diagon Alley before starting her new job on Monday. The problem was, there was no one to help her move her things. Molly and Arthur were attending a family friend's wedding, Bill was on yet another business trip to Egypt, Charlie was in Romania, Percy was busy with some "very important" work, the twins were at their joke shop, Harry was a busy Auror, Ron was at work in the Department of Magical Games and Sports, and Ginny was out to lunch with Luna.

Hermione sat on the bed in Percy's old room, where she'd been living for the past year, contemplating how she was going to move her ton of books, parchments, trinkets... she had an awful lot of stuff for a room so small, and she didn't even have furniture for her apartment yet. Hermione didn't have the funds to furnish everything yet, figuring she could buy a mattress and sleep on that until she got her first paycheck and could buy a bed, a couch, a dining table, kitchen things, bookshelves (so many bookshelves!)... the list went on and on.

"Hermione!" a voice said with an interesting mixture of sarcasm and enthusiasm.

Interrupted in her thoughts, Hermione jumped up, her hand searching for her wand while her eyes were trained on any sign or movement.

"It's just your favorite twin," announced Fred, stepping into her room.

"Fred? What are you doing here?"

Ignoring her question, Fred remarked, "ah, so you do admit I'm your favorite!"

"I said nothing of the kind!" Hermione responded, a little too loudly.

"You're a good liar, Hermione," Fred laughed.

Choosing to ignore him (and frankly a little flustered), Hermione asked, "So what are you actually doing here?"

"Just seeing how my favorite little scholar is doing. I hear you got a job?" Fred sat on the bed next to her.

"Yes! In the Department of Magical Law Enforcement!" Hermione told him excitedly.

"Are you an Auror? Do you work with Harry?" Fred inquired curiously.

"I'm not an Auror, it's more of an administrative research role. See, I get to learn about the history of a particular incident, the times someone's done a similar thing before, and I research ways other places have dealt with similar scenarios. Then I recommend to the Aurors what I have determined is the best way to combat a certain incident. I'll be working alongside Harry, actually telling him what to do somewhat, but I won't be working with him, per se," Hermione explained.

"That actually sounds really cool!" said Fred. "I kinda thought you'd end up as some kind of stuffy librarian or something, but that sounds quite interesting!"

Hermione was intrigued. Fred had never been very interested in her before, only as his little brother's nerdy friend. But she was pleasantly surprised by his new attitude toward her, though she was a little curious what had changed.

"Yeah I think so!" she responded to Fred, "I get to do research, which I love, I get to boss people around, which I also like, and I get to apply reasoning to real world problems and find practical solutions, which is really all I've ever wanted to do. It's really the perfect combination! I'm quite excited about it," she informed him.

"I can tell," Fred chuckled. "Mum told me the other day you were moving out?"

"Yes, I found an apartment in Diagon Alley. It's a little small, but I don't need a lot anyway. Mostly I like that it's in such a central location."

"Yeah, that's important," Fred nodded.

Something occurred to Hermione. "Why aren't you at the shop?"

"Well, Hermione, I heard you were moving today, and I knew everyone else was busy. George and Verity agreed to watch the shop today so that I could come help you!"

"Thank you so much Fred! Honestly I don't know how to move all this stuff over there." Hermione hadn't expected to be so grateful toward Fred, ever. Usually she was angry with him. Or just mildly annoyed. But for some reason, he was being lovely to her.

Hermione noticed Fred turn slightly pink as she thanked him. But he quickly recovered from any embarrassing shows of emotion, saying "I thought of that too, so I made something to help you."

Fred walked into the hall, returning to the room a moment later lugging a wooden pallet behind him.

"Is that a Muggle pallet?" asked Hermione, wondering how he could've gotten such a thing.

"Yeah, actually," Fred responded. "George and I find them quite helpful in our shop to move things around."

"But we're moving me to Diagon Alley, not next door," remarked Hermione.

"I know that, love, that's why this isn't just any old pallet," Fred explained. "I've enchanted it. You know how you can send a Patronus to a specific person? This pallet is the same way, except to a location. We use these all the time in the shop for larger deliveries. If you cast a Patronus on it, and tell it where to go, your Patronus will take it there."

Hermione blushed when Fred called her "love," even though she knew he was usually quite flirtatious. The fact that Fred had just done some quite impressive magic didn't help.

"Fred, that's," Hermione begin.

"Astounding? Stupendous? An actual miracle?" Fred helpfully suggested.

"I was going to say amazing, but those work too," Hermione smiled. She usually refrained from complimenting the Weasley twins for fear of encouraging their bad behavior, but this time she felt it was deserved.

"Thank you, Hermione," Fred said honestly.

They sat in silence for a moment until Fred, realizing the awkwardness of the situation, added, "I thought so too!" with a mocking hand on his heart.

Hermione, wanting to escape the awkwardness also, gestured to the pallet, asking if she could load it.

"Oh yeah," said Fred, "have you boxed things up yet?"

Hermione pointed at the large pile of boxes in the corner of her room. Really all that was left in her room was the furniture, which belonged to the Weasleys.

"Merlin," Fred laughed, "I must have lost my eyes when George lost his ear!"

Hermione smiled, standing up and beginning to heft large, extremely heavy boxes of books onto the pallet.

Fred stood as well, telling her "this might take a few trips. That thing can handle a lot, but I don't want to risk it, you know?"

"Of course," Hermione responded, clunking a last box onto the pallet.

"What's your new address?" inquired Fred.

"105 Diagon Alley, flat 2," responded Hermione.

"We're almost next door neighbors!" said Fred excitedly.

"I suppose so," Hermione theatrically sighed.

"Excited?" asked Fred.

"You know it," Hermione said sarcastically.

"Right," Fred begun, moving toward the pallet, "let's get this stuff going." Casting a foxy Patronus, he proclaimed "105 Diagon Alley, flat 2," and Hermione's boxes disappeared.

Hermione suggested, "the wards probably mean that I have to Apparate you in, not the other way around."

"Veritable," answered Fred, proffering his elbow.

Hermione took it, Apparating them to her new apartment.

They landed with a thump in her small living room. It had large windows overlooking the street below. It certainly wasn't big enough to hold big parties, but that's not what Hermione wanted anyway. It was just big enough for her and a couple friends, so it was perfect. And there, in the center of the room, was the pallet with Hermione's belongings.

"Fred, that's actually so impressive," Hermione profused.

"I knew you'd think so," bragged Fred. "Let's go get the rest of your things."

The rest of the day was spent with multiple trips back and forth to the Burrow, collecting the rest of Hermione's belongings.

After Hermione had arranged her small amount of things as best she could, and after she'd ordered takeaway to eat on the floor of her new home (her family's tradition whenever they moved), it was eleven at night, and she was ready to go to bed.

Digging through her large pile of boxes, she finally found a throw pillow and a blanket. Hermione muttered, "Engorgio," enlarging the pillow to be mattress-sized. She got under the blanket, telling herself that this was only temporary, until she received her first paycheck and could buy herself a mattress and some furniture.

Monday evening arrived, and Hermione struggled with the lock for a few moments before finally gaining entrance to her new apartment. Flopping onto her mattress, she groaned. Her first day of work had been extremely busy. Harry had been very nice to her all day, welcoming her to the department and taking her to lunch, but she was exhausted. Wizards everywhere were partaking in a new trend: attaching fireworks at the end of a broom as a form of propulsion. This was extremely dangerous and had already resulted in a few deaths and many, many severe injuries. Hermione had been working feverishly trying to find the best method to combat this trend, finally settling on a recommendation of a Ministry announcement and new laws regulating broomsticks and fireworks.

A knock on the door startled Hermione, and she stood up quickly. Opening the door, she saw Fred on the other side.

"Hermione! Lovely to see you," he greeted her.

"Hi Fred! What are you doing here?"

"Why, simply welcoming our new neighbor," he said, walking into the apartment. "Also, I brought us dinner, because I thought you'd be exhausted from work."

"Fred, that's so thoughtful," said Hermione. "How did you know work was so bad?"

"Well," Fred responded, "it was your first day, so I imagined you'd be tired purely from that, and Harry had come into our shop complaining about today. He only does that when work has been really bad and he doesn't want Ginny to get fed up with listening to him vent," Fred chuckled. "So I imagined you'd had a similar experience."

"I did," Hermione said, and she told him about her day as she opened the takeaway bag to find Chinese food. "Seriously, Fred," she said, digging into the chow mein, "thanks so much for dinner! I really appreciate it; I was not looking forward to cooking tonight. Or leaving the house again to get dinner."

"Of course, Hermione," Fred said. "Least I could do."

"Why is it the least you could do?" asked Hermione curiously.

"You've helped us so much with the shop, you know…" Fred paused. "I like having you around, wanted to keep you happy."

They ate silently for a moment, trading containers to make sure they each got some of every dish.

At this point, the two were sitting next to each other on the only seating in the house, Hermione's enlarged pillow.

"When are you going to get furniture?" asked Fred jokingly.

"I get paid in two weeks," said Hermione, "so I guess then!" she announced cheerily, trying to diffuse some of the tension.

"I remember those days," Fred said wistfully. "The flat above the shop was empty for a few months as George and I were trying to eke out enough profits to survive. We only really found success once summer hit and Hogwarts let out. We were worried there for a little while that we wouldn't make it. But now I'm confident we're doing well," he told her truthfully.

"I guess I imagined you were always successful," replied Hermione.

"We weren't, seriously," Fred chuckled. "Two Hogwarts dropouts with a failed shop having to move back in with their mum would not have been a happy story. We got really lucky, I think."

"Well, you and your brother both do amazing magic, and you're smart businessmen," Hermione remarked. "I'm sure you'd have made it at some point, even if it wasn't at your shop. Thankfully, it was, though."

They had finished the dinner, and Hermione realized how close she and Fred had gotten. Over the past few days, she had actually missed him, something she never thought would happen. She was honestly very happy to see him, and she told him so, figuring he deserved it since he had been so kind to her.

"I had missed you too," said Fred, "I neglected to mention that in my reasons for coming here. I do appreciate your company, you know, you're smart, kind, pretty…" He hadn't exactly meant to say that last part, but she didn't run away, so he figured that was a good sign.

Fred leaned over to Hermione, waiting to see what she would do. Hermione stayed where she was, her face turned towards his.

Fred finally steeled himself, leaned towards her, and kissed her.

Hermione hadn't exactly been expecting that. She thought they'd been having a bit of a friendship moment. But, thinking about it, he was smart, funny, and caring, not to mention slightly attractive (Hermione realized she had always felt butterflies when she'd seen him, but she had figured that that was her reaction to seeing any boy her age). So, gathering her Gryffindor courage, she responded.

A few moments later, Fred broke away. "I think I have to get back to my flat, George will wonder where I've been," said Fred apologetically. He stood up and made for the door.

"Oh, of course," said Hermione, slightly disappointed that nothing had progressed further and unsure where their relationship stood.

"Goodnight," said Fred.

Hermione responded in kind.

Fred had just about closed the door behind him when he stuck his head back in. "Miss Granger?"

Hermione had turned around to clear up from dinner, but when she heard his voice, she swiveled around to face him. "Yeah, Fred?"

"Could I interest you in dinner Friday night?" Fred smiled at her.

"Yes!" said Hermione, unable to hide her excitement.

Fred's face broke out into a grin. "Excellent!" He came over to her, gave her a quick kiss, and returned to the door. "Bye for good this time, I actually do have to go," he laughed.

"Bye Fred," Hermione smiled.

"Bye love," he responded, closing the door behind him.

Hermione sank onto her enlarged pillow, more excited than she had ever been.

**A/N: I hope you enjoyed this one shot! Please review and let me know what you think, and if you have any other ideas for fics/pairings. Have a wonderful day! **

**~rejuvenation**


End file.
